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I’ve been meaning to put this post together for days and possibly a couple weeks. But we are still recovering in this house from life. No illnesses thank goodness. But I had gum surgery on Thursday and it’s not fun let me tell you. But I won’t sicken you with my gum surgery tale, I saved that for my Instagram followers.

On to Greta’s little wall makeover! I have been trying to talk her into letting go of her play kitchen for awhile now. The height of her kitchen food making playfulness was about 3 years old. So from 2-4 years of age it got some nice play time. But since then it has become more of a toy for other children when they come to visit. And it takes up a whole lot of space in her already packed room. Between her doll house, doll cradle, doll stroller, barbie collection, lalaloopsy collection, book case, nightstands, jewelry collection, dress up baskets. There’s a lot going on in this room of hers. So she gave me the okay a few weeks ago and while she was at a movie with her daddy I went right to work and moved the kitchen out. She didn’t blink an eye when she returned and we started plans of what would adorn the wall instead. She was on board.

I knew I wanted to spend close to no money on this since I feel like every few years we rearrange the kids room and change the room to fit their needs. I love love love me some pinterest so I went to my boards for inspiration. I kept coming back to shelving. Shelving out of common items you wouldn’t normally think to use.

I picked up this half hanging planter from my local nursery for around $12, and I knew I wanted to spray paint it with a green color, so I picked up a can in the right color for $5.

Next we had some of these wooden wine crates. Aaron has been saving them for me to use as a future planter project I have in mind for the backyard. But we can always get more, so he was fine with me taking two. We get them from our local wine/grocery store, for free. Yep, there’s always a few laying around where they are trying to get rid of them, so we happily take them off their hands. I had some white spray paint and then purchased a fun yellow can as well. Here’s the shelf before and then after a coat of white for the inside. (btw I use rustoleum for all my spray paint)

I’m going to try my best to explain how I did the spray paint different colors for the interior and exterior of the boxes. First I decided on my colors. I knew I wanted one box to be white on the inside with yellow on the outside, and then the other box I wanted opposite (yellow-inside, white-outside). Then I went to work on the inside, I made sure to do all the interior sides and the little lip on the exterior. I used maybe 1-2 coats and I wanted it a little rustic looking so I wasn’t very careful about coverage. Then I flipped the box over so it was laying face down, that way when I sprayed all the exterior sides it didn’t touch the interior color at all. Does this make sense? This was the easiest way for me to avoid using tape or having to go back to touch up the interior.

I also used a wire basket we already owned for the wall in addition to the planter and two wine boxes. So at this point we are at $12- planter, $5-spray paint can yellow, $5-spray paint can green, for a grand total of $22 plus tax. Everything on the inside we had or made ourselves, so this little wall was only $22.

Now for some details. The interior of the yellow crate has my most favorite item. I purchased a Time atlas book at a thrift store in Palm Springs last year and I was so happy to get to use one of the pages from it. I cut out the state of California because we all know how great this state is, and I traced the shape onto another sheet of paper. I handed that sheet to Gunnar and told him to please cut me a piece of wood to fit it. He has a little jigsaw that Aaron has taught him how to use. So he and Aaron got to work and a few minutes later voila, I had my wood piece. Next we just glued the map onto the wood for a perfect fit and then I used one of those picture hanging tabs to place it in the crate.

I also placed a pair of my baby shoes into this box and an Ikea vase with some fresh flowers, and this wooden bird that was residing in my room before, along with a gold spray painted wooden puzzle animal we bought at the hardware store. My kids go crazy for these wooden puzzles and they are like $2. I thought hey, let’s spray paint it gold since that’s another can I had lying around, and all of a sudden it got fancy!

The little green hanging planter was a piece of cake to spray paint and then I thought it would be a good place to hang her more special dolls, Eloise and Madeline.

The interior of the white box is so special too. Okay, I lie, the whole thing is just special special special and sentimental. I shared about the Ikea vase that I bought for $7 awhile back and then taped and spray painted the stripes a few weeks ago. I also bought this Princess and the Pea set from Etsy when Greta was only a few months old. She has played and loved this set so much through the years. In fact the set is often not in the crate because she plays with it almost daily. Fortunately the lower shelf Greta can reach herself so she often takes it down herself. The little Matryoska doll set was a present from Aaron to her, and the little piggie Greta takes a lot of pride in since she painted it herself. I placed a little nail in the top corner so I could hang her first pair of ballet slippers.

The yarn garland I saw on Pinterest and followed this tutorial. Super easy. I had all the yarn already so I decided to try it out and somehow I can’t figure why I don’t have yarn garlands strewn about the entire house, I love it that much! I used embroidery floss to hang them instead of yarn however.

Sitting on top of the white crate is another Etsy find that my mom bought when Greta was too small to walk, a little handpainted doll cottage. And I also placed part of a special antique tea set that my Aunt Tracie gifted to Greta as the next little girl in the family. The deal is it stays in the family with the girls, so we’ll see who gets it next, Gunnar’s daughter? Romeo’s? Oy vey, I am having heart palpitations thinking about it. Also, another spray painted little wooden puzzle dolphin Greta made herself. And then the basket we already owned with sock monkey in it that Nanni bought Greta. As you can see a whole lot of love went into not only creating this wall, but all the items that reside here.

So there you have our very inexpensive wall shelving for now. I still would like to add some framed prints or photos to the wall, but I think that will just take time. With everything for our house, I have to love it, and sometimes that takes awhile to find the right piece.

at least I document my life somewhere right? even if instagrams is all it is. here’s the last few weeks in review. no pressure for you to actually read through these, it’s more for my documentation than anything else.

1.library volunteer time 2.this is kim sober?RHBH 3.most uncomfortable waiting room bench ever 4.need this paper cutter in my house 5.crazy driver 6.skylander 7.focus group view 8.choosing books over tv 9.latte 10.bestie breakfast 11.zara kids 12.romeo on the kinder yard 13.first fire station field trip for the little man 14.listening, sort of 15.with zia 16.love me some spray paint 17. orthodontist 18.yogurtland for first time 18.still in bed 19.these two love each other 20.reading 21.facetime before romeo’s bedtime 22.reading ramona the pest 23.peek into greta’s new shelving 24.and another 25.garden prep work 26.work as a team 27.house chore 28.haircut 29.a little boy’s present to me 30.a yellow school bus 31.she has skillzzz 32.red 33.some peeks of our family photo shoot 34.fire pit 35.craft bookmarks at the book swap thanks to tanya 36.the most delicious caramel sauce

I have been working on some colorful pieces for Greta’s room, one of her walls is getting a mini makeover. Nothing dramatic, but she’s outgrown some of her toys like her kitchen, and so we thought it was time to spruce up that area. One of the pieces was a simple Ikea vase. It was just plain white, but I plan to place it in something that is all white as well, so then you wouldn’t see it at all. So I just quickly put on some blue painter’s tape, got out a spray paint bottle we already had in Rustoleum’s Colonial Red (I use Rustoleum for all my spray painting) and voila. Simple. Nothing too fancy and the lines aren’t perfect, but it’ll be just the pop of color for the space.

–Cakies-Aaron just made this oven baked fried chicken and it was delicious. And of course so much healthier than actually frying chicken in any oils. Highly recommend, and super easy ingredients, we didn’t even have to make a trip to the store for a single ingredient.

–A Beautiful Mess-Elsie shared such a simple tutorial for a simple cotton top that is inspiring to give my sewing machine a go again. I really really REALLY need to take a class, but until I find the time for that I still would love to experiment with easy and beginner things. This looks just up my alley.

–All for the Boys-such a great and easy idea for mini tents/forts for Lego guys. Which we have a ton of this house, lego guys every.where.

Other inspiration I’m finding at the moment?

-The need for green. Aaron and I have been having green smoothies for dinner a few nights each week, and we both are feeling great. Tonight he paired it with quinoa with almonds, pomegranate seeds, green bell pepper, and green onions. delish

-Sore muscles. Yes, the soreness is inspiring for me. I’m back to regular exercising and I love that stiff feeling in the morning til I stretch and get going.

-Caffeine. Back on caffeine a little. A few lattes a week is all I’m allowing myself, but it’s oh so good.

This project was started back in late June, but saw it’s completion last weekend. My mother and father in law were here in June and the hunt for wood and brainstorming of plans began. Originally I had envisioned an on the ground fort. But my husband and father in law and two sons disagreed. We came to a compromise where the entrance would not be from the roof (lord have mercy!), but it would be off the ground. The base was completed in one weekend, but then it took a little different path than we imagined and so we had to wait until we had the time and energy to finish it. Aaron has been doing a lot of envisioning and research when it came to railings and rope ladders. I absolutely love the finished product and the kids are beyond thrilled. They have eaten dinner up there once, and have spent countless hours playing up there.

The kids also finally agreed on a name. I told them each to pick one word and then we would combine them. Gunnar somehow talked Greta into teaming up together for their two words and chose “all stars” and Sawyer’s contribution was “cheesy”. Thus Fort Cheesy All Stars came to be. In this first photo you can see our fire pit area in the background, I’ll share a post later this week with the finished product of that. We absolutely love our little backyard and it’s so nice spending time out there together.

I had some leftover paint I found in an obnoxious green color, apparently this paint was a contender when we redid the kids’ art closet, glad we went with something less bright. But it made for some fun signs.